Queen's Ransom 2022

The Queen's Ransom is a bikepacking route painstakingly created by none other than all around good dude John Schilling. When it comes to adventure and rides in the "epic" status, John is no stranger. Whether it be "hey wanna scout a route?" day rides or multiple day or even multi-week events, he has been there and done that. Probably got rained on or snowed on in the process. Haha. 

In any case, in a time where it is pretty easy to open up some mapping app and slap something together and call it a route, rest assured that this one is truly viable and of the highest quality. It's also jam packed with stunning views, physical challenges and beautiful singletrack. Appropriately, it has been added to the route listing over at bikepacking.com - that's the "public" version.

This ride report though is about the group ride. It is slightly different as it starts and ends at John's house and includes some amazing sag stops on day one and three. The other special thing about the group ride is the pre-planned stop points for each day. This means that no matter how fast or slow you are - at the end of the day you end up hanging out with everyone else unless you choose to stop early for whatever reason. This format is my favorite by far, which is weird because I am an introvert by nature. Go figure.

So let's kick off this party. The 9th?? running of the Queen's Ransom.

Day 1

Daybreak, and a swarm of eager bikepackers swarms John's house. One hundred percent positive energy.

You'd think with 25 or so riders, getting started on time would be a challenge, but I think we started right around 7:10AM when the planned start was 7AM. Not bad.

Just like that, getting warmed up with a flat - yet never boring - bike paths & canal road riding.

Temps were pleasantly cool, and the rain in the forecast seemed to not be materializing.

Artsy - or something.

The goal was to keep the group mostly together until our Desert Trails Park. It was really nice filtering up and down the line of riders. Saying hi to new people and meeting people that you've "known" for a long while online in real life. Neat! Crossing streets had some interesting moments with some angry drivers who were clearly upset that they weren't on the ride with us ;)

Quick regroup at Desert Trails Park for water and a snack. First singletrack of the day on tap after a bit of additional pavement.

We hopped on the TRW trail and it was time for everyone to get used to their loaded up rigs in a true mountain biking environment. The kitty litter over hard-pack caught a few riders off guard causing some minor spills, but nothing serious. 

Up next was the highly anticipated bacon and booze sag stop. John has a couple of friends, John and Jennifer and they generously opened their garage for all of us to partake in an amazing spread of doughnuts, bacon, whiskey and mimosas. Let me tell you - if you haven't crushed a doughnut, had a handful of bacon and taken a couple of shots of amazing whiskey at 10AM on a Friday morning with 28 miles down and 50 challenging miles to go, you aren't living.

The real magic was in the shaded garage.

Singletrack goodness at Hawes and a nice shot of Red Mountain.

Pretty lush right now.

Ribbons of dirt and again, Red Mountain always in view.

Leapfrogged with Evan and John for a bit. Here I am getting footage of Evan getting footage of John.

John ripping it

Evan's turn.

Hard to not smile on trail like this. 

They day was starting to warm up a bit - was waiting for the forecast cooler temps to kick in.

Just like that, the winds picked up a bit and relief from the sun was immediate.

Cool trail that parallels the west side of Pass Mountain. 

I grabbed some water at the trailhead and ate some food and soon a ton of riders had gathered there. It's funny when you are out there thinking you are far away from everyone else but the reality is that usually they are much closer than you think.

Cloud cover continues to build.

First view of the mighty Superstitions way back there. We are going to ride its flanks and beyond today...

Easy and fast riding here in Usery.

This is Hannes from Germany. Super strong on the milder stuff. He wanted to follow me through here and kept wanting me to verify his computer cues. Super nice guy. He had just completed the Fool's Loop the previous day. Crazy.

The mountain tells you the way to Phoenix.

Clouds were getting thicker and it was considerably cooler. 

The rain lasted long enough to put rain gear on. Given the cool temps, you don't really want to chance getting too wet. That can go downhill quick even here in the desert.

Just as soon as I put my rain gear on, the rain stopped. Go figure. Joined up with a few other riders to walk down some steep and loose fall line section of trail. Watched the rider in front of me go over the bars twice so I just walked down with him. Fine with me. I left all of them behind when a pretty steep and uphill section started. More HAB, but damn... the view was stupendous when the saddle was obtained:

 

Dropped back down to earth...and heading to the Goldfields for some mainly jeep road grinding.

After not seeing anyone for a while, Hannes caught and blew past me.

The cloud cover of the afternoon provided dramatic lighting changes. One minute the supes would be in shadow, the next they would be brilliantly lit.

What's better? One....

... or two?

John had rallied after (his words) slow start to the day. 

We navigated the squatter camp on the other side of Hwy 88 and crossed over. 

Some of us knew what was coming up, the others had no idea: Jacob's Crosscut. I knew it was going to be slower going but I was pleasantly surprised with how rideable it was. It was chunky, tight and technical, but relatively flat so I just methodically picked my way through it. The scenery was certainly above average.

I had those types of views to my left, and then to the west, I had views like this:

Arizona Postcard

Super tall and unique saguaro

I wonder if this rainbow is where our resupply is...

The final bit of Jacob's Crosscut is downhill and baby-head littered. It was jarring to say the least. But it was fairly short and I knew the end was near. I escaped out of the pinball machine and let out a "fuck yeah" at the relief of pavement. I stopped to switch over to night riding - handlebar light and clear lenses. Just then I heard John yell out from behind me. We shared some fast pavement which I expected to go longer but John had found a dirt connector over to the shopping center we use for resupply. It rode great and was way better than the pavement it replaced on the previous version of the route (which it shares in the reverse direction for the AZTR). Got a sweet shot of the supes turning blood red.

Yeah, like that.

That wraps up the pics for the day. Got to the shopping center and decided against going to the Mexican place there for dinner as I just wanted to get to camp. It was also very busy. So... grabbed a sandwich from Subway - some for dinner and some for breakfast. Refilled water, etc. John rolled up with Kelly who was joining the route from here. They got their resupply then we all started to roll out together first on pavement then trails in Gold Canyon. I had heard something about "4 miles" so that's what I had in my head. 4 miles came, then 5, then 6. Finally at eight miles I saw some lights and made the turn up to camp one. I immediately called out Schilling for the four mile bullshit but as always it is in good fun. Campfire was going and there were cold beers and tacos courtesy of Chris who managed to meet us out there in his truck. I set up my sleep kit and joined the crew around the fire. The sky spit at us a few times but nothing bad. Riders continued to roll up over the next hour or two or so. Good times. Hell of a day.

 

Day 2

Got a touch of rain overnight after we all crashed out, but it was short lived though some stuff was slightly damp in the morning. Slept really well. I started hearing people around 6am maybe and finally got motivated enough to get up around 6:30.

Morning chores - eating, packing up, etc.

My room for the night. Pretty decent view I suppose :)

Riders started heading out into a partly cloudy day and then I took off, heading out into the swoopy fun trails. There are a lot of cool lines here but I didn't take any of the advanced options. I was feeling kinda clumsy and didn't want anything stupid to happen early on in the day.

Lush green and dark brown slightly damp dirt. Paradise.

Had to stop often to admire the views

Rinse and repeat; it's all good out here.

After leaving the Gold Canyon trails, it was some jeep road riding to attain Queen Valley for mid-day refreshments.

There was just a touch of dampness in the dirt to make tire tracks super visible. 

Seeing water in the desert is always special.

A few of the steep and rubbly grunts had me walking a couple times.

Same for this rider in front of me.

We left dirt once again for some welcome rolling pavement into the little community around Queen Valley.

Always have to get pictures of cows for my oldest daughter.

It's a gathering!

I grabbed a lemonade - scratch that a limeade - and ate some of the food I had been carrying around. I was tempted to buy something here to eat, but really needed to made a dent in some of my snacks haha. Used the restroom (PS minimal privacy in there), refilled water and chatted with incoming riders. Put on another layer of sunscreen. 

I didn't really want to stick around for too long, there is still a long ways to go to camp so I headed out.

These types of views dominated the early afternoon riding.

There was a section here where plenty of people were out target shooting - nothing weird about that in this area really but there was one guy set up after a turn off the main road who was shooting parallel to the road... there was a backstop he was shooting into but still getting by him meant going downrange of his location. Whatever he was shooting was large too. I stopped briefly and yelled over to them about my intentions but they either didn't hear me or didn't care. I waited for a break in the action and pedaled my happy ass over that hill as quick as I could. A couple shots rang out which got the heart beating a bit. I don't have a problem with their activities, just wish people would be smart. Meh.

What looks like a dot dead center of the pic is actually an airplane. Watched them doing maneuvers in the skies above for an hour or so. Really neat.

Pretty sure they were practicing for air drops for fire suppression. 

Windmill in the desert, complete with many bullet holes in the fins.

Some HAB to break up the pedal grind.

Ah! A view of picketpost. We would be riding around the west side of it later today.

Getting closer, but need to ride a bit further east in order to hit resupply.

Apache Leap cliffs above Superior

Somewhere in here Hannes blew by me. I just laughed at his speed on this kind of terrain. Rolled up to the circle k where plenty of riders were hanging out eating and gathering supplies for tonight and tomorrow. I went in and grabbed whatever looked good and a large can of beer. The Beasty Boys fought for our right to party so we have to do it the right way IMO. Now just need to drag it up thousands of vertical feet to camp.

This place is busy, busy. 

Got back on route right behind the circle k onto the LOST trail which makes it way through Arnett Canyon. I've been through Arnett a few times now, but never this direction on the bike. I was really curious to see how it was. I knew it was going to be pretty, but my goodness was it a blast to ride. 

Prior to leaving the store, Zach asked if he could ride with me. I said sure I'm just slow haha. He was totally chill about it, so let's go!

Nice canyon views that are a small warmup of what we will see tomorrow in Martinez Canyon.

Admiring views and catching my breath. I was definitely pushing harder than I normally would since I had a rider on my tail. 

Hannes had also left with us, but he dropped way off as we bombed through Arnett. Man, what a blast. We stopped for a second at a gate to talk to a couple horseback riders and then crushed the last little bit until we met up with the AZT. Stopped at the junction to eat a little snack and then begin the ride up to the AZT water collector. This definitely wasn't going to be easy, as this section can put the hurt on you even during a regular day ride.  

Working our way around the flanks of Picketpost Mtn. Cool lighting. 

Making good progress.

The trail was in really great shape. I've been on this segment three times this year, and the difference between each visit is dramatic in terms of trail condition and just the feel of it.

Stopping to catch our breath and grab photos. Zach really had me pushing my limits on this climb. He was always right on my tail.

Couldn't even see this singletrack in October it was so overgrown with grass. Perfect now.

Shared a coke with Zach here at the first overlook. Then Schilling and Kelly passed and we decided to get going again.

I'm pretty sure this is Zach looking at where we still need to go. Up, up, up! Picketpost firmly in the background now and you can tell how much elevation we have gained already. 

This ended up being my last picture of the day. We made it to camp before dark which was the goal I had. Plenty of people were up there already including some thru-hikers. Thanks for letting us crash your evening of solitude haha! The wind was really ripping so getting things set up and secure was the first order of business. Then doing normal things like filtering water from the collector, general BS-ing, eating, etc. Zach wasn't feeling great and was like "damn you pushed hard up this thing"... I was like "dude I know you were on my tail the entire time". Sounds like we both pushed each other, and I'm thankful because it got us to camp sooner. Took a toll on Z though, but he rebounded just fine. Strong rider!

The night was chill with plenty of hang out time and conversations, would have been nice to have a fire but just couldn't do it with the wind howling. Ate some food, cracked a beer with Schilling, Evan, Mike W and others. Before too long though, we were all seeking out the warmth of our shelters. Had another good night of sleep. It's amazing how well you can sleep when pushing yourself for a full day on the bike. 

Day 3

On paper, this day looks "easy", and it is certainly a notch or two down from days one and two, but it still takes 6-10 hours to get to the sag stop at which point the rest of the 10 miles is downhill with a few punchy exceptions. In that context, that's a 34 mile ride with 5600 feet of climbing with bikepacking gear. So it's still quite challenging. That said, the views - especially in the first 2.5 miles - are just flat out bonkers. The fact that a trail is even in this location and that it is available to bikes is an amazing thing.

Hard to get motivated. It was chilly up here. I stuck around until the warmth of the sun reached our spot.

Looking south - we came through that low point (and much lower than that) to get way up here.

My bike was tired and wanted to sleep in...

Jeff waiting to drop in.

Sunshine is very welcome because as soon as we drop in we will be shaded for a while.

There goes Nancy

The trail contours along the left side of this canyon.

Chasing the sun but it's on the far side - won't feel its warmth until we approach the high point.

Brief moment of warmth before getting back into the shadows

I was really just taking my time through here. I wasn't really in the mood to push very hard and knew I had no chance of staying in front of Jeff. I also didn't want to get in front of Nancy either so I just hung back and tried to keep plenty of space between myself and Nancy so she wouldn't feel like I was on her tail. A few other riders had different plans and went by me - fine by me I am just enjoying the views. This is one of the only places where I would see Jeff and Nancy for an extended period of time. They are always much faster than me. This scenario was the lone exception.

Views just get better and better as the full expanse of Martinez Canyon is revealed.

Riding through here makes me feel small.

Nancy is the tiny yellow speck on the trail on the left side. Jeff is right past the rock fall/chute. #where's waldo?

The high point is beyond the top right sunlit section - so just a touch of climbing ;)

Made the high point!

Getting ready to blast off toward the Gila

The trail here is just a fantastic nearly 2000 foot descent that occurs in about seven miles. There are a couple of technical spots but for the most part it is rideable for anyone. This section was in as good a shape as I have ever seen it.

Had to stop the flow a few times to grab pictures. Some big saguaros back here.

Dale's Butte is the rock tower on the right.

This sign indicates you are just a short and steep jeep road descent away from the Gila River.

If you need water, you can filter at the Gila, though with the water collector in play, it probably isn't necessary going this direction. I did hear that there was a place further down along the trail towards Kelvin where there is a sign indicating river access. This could come in handy for AZT travelers - it might come as a surprise but even though this section is always fairly close to the river, it is virtually inaccessible along the entire push. So if you need water, keep an eye out for the sign or grab it at "the turn".

Good view of the Gila here, wouldn't be able to see it very often but could sometimes hear it if you stopped moving.

Found a grassy spot in the shade of a tree - needed to sunscreen up. I had passed John a bit ago as he was prepping for warmer riding. Figured he would catch me while I was here.

I heard a freehub and had my camera ready - there he is!

This section has both singletrack and jeep road bits.

Last time I was here I'm pretty sure this was barbed wire. These gates are rad.

Wasn't sure if I would see a rattler on the ride. This harmless fella was as close as I ever got. Almost ran him over but stopped in time

Gila River is now far below showing how much climbing this segment actually has. It's gonna get higher in a bit.

The climbing gets super dumb as the hike up Dale's Demoralizer begins. Just enjoy views of this large train trestle while walking your bike!

The sheer scope of the Asarco Ray mine in the background is hard to capture. Pretty in its unique way.

The grade eventually points downhill and some poppies are there to witness my great speed.

End of the AZT line briefly as I made the very slight detour here to slam a couple bottles worth of water at the ADOT yard.

Happy to be done with that - the sag stop is now within reach but a long climb away.

This is the AZT between Kelvin and the Kelvin TH. I turned a corner and the poppies were uhhh poppin' :)

This section was more strenuous than I thought it was going to be. I was actually looking forward to the road climb because while tough it is at least a consistent, though challenging, grade.

This marks the end of being on AZT for the ride. Now to grind out the Florence-Kelvin Hwy Climb. It's about 1200 feet in 4 miles. I was happy to ride it all without walking though I had thoughts of hopping off a couple times. 

SAG STOP!

I rolled up to plenty of riders being there with another 10 or so still back. This was such a treat. Thanks to John's wife Kara for making this happen. Nice to roll up to cold drinks, plenty of snacks (CHIPS AND SALSA!!), and our drop bags. I was stoked for the food and drink but also excited to get my change of riding clothes. Makes a world of difference. Felt brand new after changing.

Lots of people took off early to get to camp, I decided to hang out for a couple hours with John to help keep the stoke high as riders continued to roll in. Spirits were super high and bellies were happy. We were only missing one rider - Hannes - there was a bit of concern around where he might be. People had seen him earlier but nobody had seen him in a while. He also wasn't wearing a tracker. This can make the imagination go a little wild - or at least mine. Make no mistake, some of the terrain we had been through - especially in Martinez Canyon- have some pretty serious exposure. Just had to hope for the best at this point.

We took off around 5:30 for the rip down to the camp spot. This was a good deal of fun and some leap-frogging happened while we took turns taking pictures as the golden hour crept in.

We camped far up in those distant mountains last night - a little left of dead center. 

Evan ripping

John blows by.

Meeting of the minds.

Final charge towards our camp spot near "area 52"

Can just about smell the campfire...

Rolled into camp while it was still plenty light out. Campfire was already in full effect, but I wanted to get my bivy set up so I wouldn't have to deal with it later. Got changed into some warmer clothes. Found John who said that he had heard about Hannes who happened to roll into the sag stop right after we had bailed out and right before Kara had actually left. SWEET! 

We had a great time around the campfire and it was a great feeling to know that we all were on the cusp of wrapping up this thing. The fact that nearly the entire field except for one had made it here is in my opinion pretty incredible. This is no slouch of a route and I think previous editions have seen a fifty percent attrition rate. Just a testament to the quality of the riders out there. Kudos to all who started this thing!

This.

Eventually things started to wind down a bit, and discussions of how much McDonald's we all were going to crush the next day began. No, seriously. That happened. It was like being a kid on Christmas Eve. I had my stomach firmly focused on a bacon egg and cheese biscuit, egg mcmuffin, sausage burrito and hashbrown lol. Others wanted pancakes. It was fun talking about getting "McStuffed" or "McFat". Good times. 

I decided to crash out, and others followed suit pretty quickly after I did. 

I was fast asleep when suddenly we heard all kinds of noises. Growls, moos, just all kinds of crazy cow noises. This hoofed beast was PISSED we were in what was likely where he sleeps or in the path of where he wanted to go. I just sat and listened wondering if it was getting closer to me but it wasn't. I heard other people start talking and or laughing. It was pretty entertaining - though it would have been pretty unnerving if I wasn't with 25 other people. What a day!

Day 4

We woke up to very cold temps and some frost/frozen things. Plus side to sleeping in a sandy wash is soft ground. Down side is that cold air settles in to it. Someone had stoked up the fire so I made my way over there while eating a bit of food and waiting for the sun to warm things up.

Hanging out with the crew waiting for the sun. McDonald's is beckoning us...

As we were down in a wash, of course we had a bit to climb before reaching a more flat grade. I was happy for it though as it helped warm me up. A little HAB too since it was a little early to just start laying down massive POWER ;)

Superstitions way, way, way back there barely visible. Yeah we were there just a couple days ago.

Travelling through some cool tree canopies.

Wait, what?! Pine trees? Wasn't expecting that at all.

Riding under pine trees with a saguaro waiting at the top.

A beautiful morning in the desert.

I caught up with Schilling and Emily at a barbed wire gate. I let them go up ahead and I tailed back behind but matched their pace. Didn't really want to get in front of them so just enjoyed the pace they were laying down while I viewed the surroundings. 

Canal riding next to the boxed in Gila River

It's not frost, just sunscreen all up in my beard. #nfg

We got spit out on to pavement for the remaining spin to the McDonald's in Florence. I have no idea how I didn't get a picture of my feast but I held true to my desires from the previous night. #McFatAF

Hung out with everyone for a bit then left as a pseudo group. No reason to get out front or lag too much behind as we had a common meeting place at a park before heading towards the brewery.

Begin pavement towards Florence

Enjoying the sights while digesting mass amounts of food - that's what the "F" on the mountain stands for I think. 

It's a peloton!

Something big was on fire, never did find out what it was but it was throwing up smoke for a large part of the morning. 

I could never quite bridge the gap to the group of 4-5 riders in front of me and I was in no-mans land. It took the group (minus Schilling) missing a turn to finally latch back on. I told Schilling that it was one way to catch them haha. After that the pace was a touch more relaxed as we turned onto neighborhood streets. 

After riding through some really nice ranch type properties, we stopped for a snack break as we prepared to enter San Tan Regional Park. The entrance fee was two dollars and a mile long push through sand for those of us with skinnier tires. Those on fatter rubber managed to get through riding. 

Hannes (left) and my boy Zach (in front) sharing the sand trudge. Hannes was very concerned. In his German accent he asked if it was like this for seven miles. I was like dude I don't know your guess is as good as mine but I think it isn't too long. 

It was over soon enough and we hit firm and smooth dirt for a fun romp through the park.

Hannes happy it wasn't seven miles of sand. There he goes!

Neat area for sure. The final challenge of the day was a pretty decent climb followed by a killer descent. 

After all of that, we grouped up and headed to the common meeting place at the park where we were going to ride as a full group to Old Ellsworth Brewing. Jeff (the curmudgeon himself) was definitely "curmudgeoning" and wanted to get going but we were still waiting on a couple riders. John was able to contact them and they said they would meet us there. LET's GO!! 

Service was a bit slow to start, but then ramped up nicely to satisfy the swarm of customers. Food was delicious and beers went down easy. Jeff got much happier when drinks/food arrived haha. I think we were all a little "hangry" to be honest.

John handed out patches/stickers and good times were had. A well deserved toast was made to John for the creation of this route and just his overall contributions to the bikepacking/adventure community. They are large and meaningful and I hope he realizes it. Thank you sir, for everything!

Sadly, like most things, this day and ride had to come to an end, so a group of us decided to get going to pick up cars from John's. 

Back to civilization :(

And that, my friends, wraps up the 2022 edition of the Queen's Ransom. I don't know what else there is to say about this other than it was just a fantastic ride with a diverse and fun group of people - which matched the personality of this route. Even though everyone has low moments on a ride of this magnitude, spirits and stoke were always elevated when you ran across someone on route. That's what makes this format so special. 

In closing, I just want to say that I was once again reminded of how special the bikepacking/ultra endurance community is. It is full of kind, generous and strong people. In fact, if you want to find a great person, just go search for someone who straps stuff to their bike/body and goes places. Odds are good that is all the vetting you need.